All the Boys at 18 Months

It is interesting to see the differences between Teddy's behavior and reactions to things as opposed to Cal and Clark's. Here are some pictures and a comparison.

Teddy at nearly 18 months

Cal and Clark at 18 months

Concept/object	Cal and Clark at 18 months-ish	Teddy at 18 months
Vacuum	Worst thing ever, must scream and cry and wail and run away and throw selves on floor in agony.	Funny! Must chase it around and touch it and let Mom vacuum up my toes with the attachment; need to find it in the closet and touch it; I like to pretend vacuum with my toys.
Ceiling fans	Most interesting object in life so far. Must gaze at them intensely for as long as the grown-ups will let us. Must point out every single one we find. Must arrange all toys and food into ceiling fan shapes.	meh
Vegetables on my tray	Must not touch unless it is broccoli and then we can touch it and eat the tops off gingerly.	Would rather eat them than bread or mac 'n cheese or pizza. Give me more when I grunt. My faves are cucumbers and green peppers.
Fruit on my tray	We will eat it all…for another few months when we will decide we don’t like anything except apples, and only without the peels.	I will eat it all and grunt for more.
Cars, trucks, trains	meh	I want to make my food into cars; I love to watch construction equipment and drive toy cars and trucks around.
Balls	We love to throw balls and roll balls and Clark already has a follow-through on his throw.	I sometimes like to throw a ball. I throw it backwards over my shoulder to confuse people/because I’m not sure how to throw it forward.
When I fall down/ am run in to/ am fallen on/ am hit with an object on accident	Shock. Usually we cry, but have learned to read the room and sometimes don’t cry.	Never fazes me. I know no pain. I am knocked in to, stepped on, picked up and moved out of the way every day. Don’t care.

Language	We love it. We use sign language fluently and have quite a few words.	I know a few signs but am belligerent about using them because everyone knows what I want when I grunt and point. I know a few words and that's enough for me. Besides, there is too much noise in my house for me to talk anyway.
Books	We love them and have our favorites that Mom reads every day. We also like to eat the board books.	I have favorite books and Mom reads them to me over and over. Love them so much I carry them around by the front or back cover all the time so the best ones are broken in half. If Mom or Dad want me to smile they recite the first lines of my favorite book and it gets me every time.
Heights	Not sure how to get up on anything so we don't even think about it.	Everything must be climbed on. Whenever someone doesn't push a chair under the table I am ON that table and I am standing up and I am drinking/eating/throwing/ whatever is on the table.
Sleeping through the night	Been doing it since we were 3 months old. NBD	What is that? Must wake up once a night unless I am super tired. Must go back to sleep with mom and dad when I wake up because I am a spoiled brat but very cuddly.
Appliances	The oven is mildly interesting if its light is turned on.	Must be IN them if possible and/or pushing buttons if possible.
Water	Must not touch it unless it is in a puddle on the ground. Must stay far away from every large body of water.	Love the water! Put it on my face, dump it on me, let me splash in it, let me throw it at you, throw it at me.

The Stairs or the Fire?

Making decisions has never been something I'm good at. Would I rather have pizza or Chinese food? I either don't care and defer to the company I'm with, or struggle about the merits of both options and torture myself with the what-ifs. I'm rarely good at quickly deciding on anything. 

But becoming a parent has sped up my decision-making process in most areas. Since I have twins, who go through the same stages at the same time, those decisions really sped up when they began walking. It was as if I was being forced in a split second to answer nearly-philosophical questions that deserve pondering and postulating over. For example: one boys toddles off toward the stairs as another nears a blazing fire. Which do I grab first? Is being burned worse than falling? Ready, set, go! Decide! Now! One boy is eating a bug out of the sand, the other is racing toward the water without a life jacket. BAM. Decide! It's seriously something that you might have a group discussion about in a philosophy class. If Hitler were drowning in a river, and you were a lifeguard, would you jump in and save him? That type of thing. Is it worse for Clark to step on and break his guitar or for Calvin to pee all over the floor? It's really a tough call.

Now there are the discipline decisions since both boys are fond of throwing loud obnoxious fits lately. What is the nature and degree of the offense? If one boy won't stop kicking me while I change his diaper, should I kick him back (Which I've gently done while sitting down and it works like a charm, because it offends them. It's like a slow motion pretend kick, but they hate it.), or do I put him in his bed for a time out? Does one boy hitting the other boy in self-defense deserve the same disciplining that an offensive hit warrants? Better decide fast!

I think I'm getting better at the split-second decision-making than I was pre-babies, but I'm still not much good at it. Or am I?

And what should I make for dinner…?

Is this the best way for him to learn not to stick his head in a fountain spout? Maybe.

Old Pictures

Last fall I had fun going through tons of old pictures and found some similarities between Brian and me and the boys. I just now stumbled upon them again.

Brian

Clark

Me (and Aunt Jane!)

Calvin

Everyone always says the boys both look just like Brian, and I think they do too, but I also see my side of the family in Calvin quite often. You can go ahead and tell me I did a good job finding parallel poses. Thanks.